bad jump...

November 16, 2005

burrowing to blush. As those first responders dug for Mary, Larry kept yelling, "Is my wife all right?" And from somewhere underneath what used to be the Millers' home, they could hear her say, "Is my husband all right?" Both were. "It's a miracle," Larry says. "Besides some bruises and cuts and gouges, we weren't hurt. Not even a broken bone. God must still have some plans for us." Mary was apparently saved from serious injury when the sofa on which she was sleeping turned over on top of her, protecting her from the collapsing walls. "We were both lucky to be alive," Larry says. They received help in the cleanup from their son and daughter-in-law from South Bend, Mark and Diane Miller, and from Mark's three sisters, including June Miller who lives in Evansville. Some of the Millers' seven grandchildren also were there. As far as possessions go, they lost just about everything, including their cars. "We found some mementos in the rubble and a few clothes we could still wear, but there were no such things as furniture and appliances," Larry says. They did manage to find the ashes of Mary's mother. "We figured they had been strewn across 14 counties," Mark Miller says. "But we uncovered the urn. My grandmother's wishes were for her ashes to be scattered over the Ohio River and so that's what we did (last weekend)." Larry and Mary Miller lived in South Bend from 1959 until the early 1970s. Larry owned his own moving and storage company before moving on to Evansville. They belonged to the Community Congregational Church on Cleveland Road, and Larry was one of the founders of the Clay Junior Baseball league. They were unlucky in some ways, but so lucky in others. The tornado that destroyed their house in the Evansville suburb of Newburgh had earlier ripped through a mobile home park a few miles away, killing more than 20 people. Fortunately, none of their neighbors was killed. "Our home (of 28 years) seemed to be the flattest," Larry says. "Houses to our east and west were also heavily damaged, but other houses in our neighborhood were spared." They do hope they never see another tornado or anything like it. "I did ask Dad if he was going to start wearing something to bed," Mark Miller admits. "But he is pretty stubborn about that. He said the odds of another tornado hitting his home are pretty slim." And that's probably close to the naked truth.